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I just checked The Conversation. It's neither an A7 nor the 9844. It is an Altec horn, the 511, I think, not enclosed, fastened to the top of what looks like a home-made enclosure for a low frequency driver. Whatever drivers are in it are covered by grille cloth. The enclosure is too small for twelve-inch woofers. This rig is suspended above the workbench in Call's shop.

Also in this movie, in Harry Call's apartment, is a bass reflex speaker which I believe is a Tannoy coaxial. It is driven by an old Bell mono integrated tube amp, the kind with the control knobs coming out of the side of the chassis and the tubes and transformers perched on top with no cage. Call listens to jazz over this system and plays along with his sax.

It may be the only way to juice this thread is to broaden the discussion to recognizable hi fi in general. Even then I can't think of much. In High Fidelity there is the classic Sansui integrated amp, the Au717, I think.

I believe it was the movie Paper Chase in which the Donald Sutherland character had Dynaco tube electronics that were briefly though clearly shown.

The sparsity of these cinema events I think points to the fact that nothing in a film set is accidental, and so if there is no reason for recognizable hi fi to be there, it is not there. In the last example the Dynaco electronics is seen right at the moment the Ryan O'Neal character discovers the Sutherland character is boffing his girlfriend, so I would guess the set designer is including a sem for ironical contrast to the import of the scene, infidelity.

In the case of The Conversation, the theme of the movie is the relation between art and reality, their indeterminant relation. In this case the art is recorded audio. In the scene where the Altec horn appears the camera slowly pans to it and then the scene fades with that image. Obviously the director thinks it's important and our seeing it is not incidental. As we watch Caul working with his tapes we are hearing snatches of the conversation, but in the movie that is indistinguishable from the realism of the film. Panning to the speaker emphasizes that Caul is attempting to reconstruct a reality by piecing together parts of his tapes, and we are meant to realize that the film is made in exactly the same way, so there is an important thematic reason for the Altec horn to be there.

I have played this same game with photography equipment and can remember films in which Rollei twin lens (Hard Day's Night) and Leica M (Passion Fish ) have appeared. That reminds me that this film, The Conversation, is in effect a remake of Antonioni's Blow-Up (I'm refraining from saying "ripoff") in which the same theme is played out using photography (Hasselblad and Nikon, I think). Other similarities between the movies are beginning with mime, the fact that both are murder mysteries with unresolved endings, and in the end the artist/protagonist is enmeshed in the indeterminantcy.

As good as it gets

In Jack Nicholsen's apt there are some rare Sony (sorry) SS-M9's and what looks to be a bunch of Mc Intosh gear. One of the first times I saw JBL speakers in the media was a "Circus" magazine in the late 70's, Circus is devoted to Hard Rock music and there was an article about "what the stars use". The group Blondie had some L100's in their private listening area.

It's those pesky Brits again! I love that film too, except Steve Coogan who plays the main caharcter, is a famous comedian in the UK with a character called "Alan Partridge" who I couldn't get out of my head whilst watching the movie. The Alan Partridge character is a nerdy naff square radio DJ type - who couldn't be further from that whole cool Manchester scene, despite the fact he fantasizes about writihing around in leather underpants on stage. I actually have the soundtrack to that film on CD. I havent tried it out on the 4343s yet. Maybe when I want to get Infredible up in the mornings is just the time to test his speakers out with a little rendition of "Anarchy in the UK" by the Sex Pistols...?

While mindlessly watching tv long ago while healing from a serious injury that left me bedridden for several months, I noticed the speakers on the Partridge Family tv show, when on stage they had A7's to the side of them. They usually "performed" on a small stage in the tv show. The A7's really showed up nicely being only a few feet behind and next to them on each side. I seem to remember they had a TV special of them on tour that had a lot of Altec's too. A glimpse of hope and enthusiasm to watch more Partridge family TV and look for the speakers......or was it to get better quicker, stop watching tv and get my own speakers....I got my own speakers. : )

bad movie

"Phantom of the Paradise" starring Paul Williams

It's a horrible movie, but I fell in lust with all the cool 1970s pro audio gear in the film. There's JBL 4320 (or 433X) hanging from the ceilings in a studio scene which also features the TONTO synthesizer; which is the main weapon of choice for Stevie Wonder in "Songs in the Key of Life." At the end of the film there's some nice all white Altec A7s in the Magnificent style on stage.